Saturday, November 19, 2005

Symbolic Violence

The Washington Square Newsrecently reported that NYU has removed GA data from its online employee demographics. While this act is, in and of itself, antagonistic, what is most egregious is the fact that NYU has entirely erased the employment history of GAs in these reports. That's to say, GA demographics no longer appear in employee data charts from past years when we were, in fact, considered to be employees of and by the university. NYU's revisionary history is another act of symbolic violence against its GAs--a desperate attempt to deny our official status as workers, as well as to disguise its longstanding relationship with the union.